Nicktoons
Nicktoons is a franchise of television cartoon shows that are produced by and aired on Nickelodeon. Nickelodeon had aired foreign-made animated films since its inception. It first experimented with its own animated programming in 1980, when the channel's first president Geraldine Laybourne commissioned a series with animated elements, Video Comic Book, and produced a fully-animated show titled Video Dream Theatre. The second series was left unaired when Laybourne did not receive the reaction she wanted from test audiences. Throughout the next decade, animated fare on Nickelodeon comprised mostly of reruns of older cartoons or more foreign series. The idea for another attempt at original animated shows on the network began in the late 1980s. Starting in 1989, profits from other programs funded "Nicktoons", with the first three cartoons (Doug, Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show) aired on Sunday, August 11, 1991. This format was repeated every Sunday, eventually leading to the production of more Nicktoons at Nickelodeon Animation Studios. A separate channel named after Nicktoons was established on May 1, 2002. History Pinwheel, the first Nickelodeon series which began in 1977, was formatted as an hour-long program with two forms of segments: original content with its cast of puppet and human characters, and showcases of foreign-made short films. Many of these films were animated cartoons dating back to the 1950s. These were the first form of animated content on what would become Nickelodeon. For its first years, Nickelodeon continued to play foreign-made cartoons in a similar fashion as part of two anthology series called First Row Features and Special Delivery. In 1980, the channel aired its first original series that was not live-action: Video Comic Book. It could best be described as a "motion comic" that consisted of illustrated scenes with animated elements, like speech bubbles and moving backgrounds. Nickelodeon's first attempt at a fully-animated show occurred later in 1980, when Geraldine Laybourne produced test pilots for Video Dream Theatre. It holds the title of Nickelodeon's first true cartoon. However, it was left unaired when test audiences did not give the reactions Laybourne wanted. Throughout the 1980s, the amount of acquired animated shows increased on Nickelodeon, with reruns of cartoons and anime such as Bananaman, Danger Mouse, The Little Prince, and The Mysterious Cities of Gold. Blocks dedicated to animated programming like Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon ran from the mid-1980s well into the late 1990s. When Nick Jr. premiered as a block in January 1988, much of its shows were imported cartoons. Profits from Nickelodeon's expanding audience at the time helped it fund its own original cartoons: the first three "Nicktoons", Doug, Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show. Nickelodeon executive Vanessa Coffey discovered all three of these programs after traveling to Los Angeles in 1988. Her goal was to find "three projects that looked completely different" in order to counter the homogeneous, toy-centric cartoons of the 1980s. Throughout the 1990s, Nickelodeon continued with its "experimental" approach to animation. Hey Arnold! creator Craig Bartlett explained that the network gradually shifted away from creator-driven content during the later years of Herb Scannell's tenure as Nick president. In his opinion, the animation department "grew more and more corporate, and less like you had a personal touch." Nickelodeon's animation production studio was originally known as Games Animation, located in Studio City, California. In 1993, Nickelodeon approached Joe Murray to create its first fully original in-house series: Rocko's Modern Life. In March 1998, the then-new Nickelodeon Animation Studio was opened in Burbank, California. In September 1999, Nickelodeon opened a digital animation studio in Manhattan, which took over animation of Nick Jr. series such as Blue's Clues. In May 2002, a sister channel named after Nicktoons was created. In 2016, Nickelodeon moved its animation facilities to a different building in Burbank that houses both animated and live-action properties. List of Nicktoons Current Nicktoons The following Nicktoons are still in production. Past Nicktoons The following Nicktoons are no longer in production, although some of them may still air on some other channels. Future Nicktoons Acquired shows The following animated programs are shown on Nickelodeon, but are not actually made by the network itself and are not official Nicktoons. Current **Now airing on the network's sister channel, Nick Jr. ***Now airing on the network's sister channel, Nicktoons. Former Movies based on Nicktoons Theatrical films Upcoming theatrical films Direct-to-video and made-for-TV films Upcoming television and direct to video films Trivia *''SpongeBob SquarePants'' currently holds the record for longest-running Nicktoon, which had previously been held by Rugrats, surpassing that show's run (in terms of number of episodes) when SpongeBob aired its 172nd episode on April 10, 2012. However, with two spin-offs, Rugrats still has the most shows featuring its characters. **''Rugrats Pre-School Daze'' holds the record for short-lived Nicktoon (18 days or 5 in the United Kingdom) and the least amount of episodes (4). *''The Fairly OddParents'' was the first Nicktoon to ever reach its 10th season, even before SpongeBob SquarePants, which was still in its ninth season, when the first episode of Season 10, "The Big Fairy Share Scare!" premiered. See also *Nickelodeon Movies *Nicktoons (TV channel) References Category:Nicktoons Category:Nickelodeon